Exeter passes morning inspection but conditions to be monitored with going eased to heavy and further rain forecast

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A morning inspection passed at Exeter but conditions will continue to be monitored with heavy rain forecast ahead of racing.

A yellow weather warning is in place for much of the south of England but conditions were deemed raceable at 7am, with the ground changed to heavy, soft in places after 18mm of rain on Wednesday and overnight. The going eased again to heavy at 11.30am.

A further 20mm of rain is forecast before and through racing and clerk of the course Jason Loosemore warned the ground would need to be monitored throughout the day.

Loosemore said at 7.30am: "It's so far, so good but I'm not enamoured with the forecast. We'll have to monitor things because we're due 5-10mm up until noon and another 5-10mm before 1.30pm. There's a chance we miss some of the worst of it but we'll see.

"The ground changed to heavy, soft in places and that's representative of the direction of travel. It'll be pretty ugly stuff but we're raceable at the moment."

Going expected to deteriorate at weekend meetings with weather warning in place

Thursday's yellow weather warning for rain is not expected to disrupt a busy weekend racing schedule at Ascot and Haydock, but conditions could deteriorate before Saturday's two ITV4 fixtures.

The going is good at Ascot for the two-day meeting headlined by the Grade 1 Howden Long Walk Hurdle (2.25), but clerk of the course Chris Stickels said the ground would likely ease to good to soft with Ascot, like much of the south of England, set to be hit with heavy rain on Thursday.

Ascot: conditions could change ahead of Saturday's cardCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The Long Walk was abandoned due to frozen ground in 2022 and rescheduled for Kempton on Boxing Day, but Stickels has no concerns despite the Met Office weather warning.

"There could be some severe rain from Wednesday night to late on Thursday, but we should be fine," said Stickels. "We're expecting between 10-12 mm of rain during that period, which will ease the ground a little bit. Friday will be fine and we might just get an occasional shower on Saturday, but there are no concerns at this stage.

"It'll probably go good to soft on Thursday if the estimated volumes are accurate. It looks like a great weekend and we're looking forward to it."

The ground could be slightly better than anticipated at Haydock after forecast rain did not arrive on Wednesday. It is soft, heavy in places for a card which includes the Betfred Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase (2.05).

The ground at Haydock is soft, heavy in places for Saturday's racingCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The ground at Haydock was soft, heavy in places, on Wednesday, and clerk of the course Dan Cooper said: "We were pleasantly surprised by the weather on Wednesday. We were forecast rain but it's ended up being a drying day with a good bit of breeze.

"Thursday will be a pretty wet day so we'll get through that, but things settle back for Friday and Saturday and I wouldn't rule out calling it soft all round.

"We'll see what the rain does, but the home straight takes rain well and I wouldn't rule out improvement. The back straight is soft, but I don't expect conditions to get too much worse."

The weather has already taken its toll on Thursday's action. Ffos Las's meeting was called off following an inspection on Wednesday afternoon with the track waterlogged.

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